A blog full of bits of historical information, comments & observations, photographs (old and new), oddball ramblings and other totally random stuff.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

THANKFUL...

We got hammered, as we say, on Thanksgiving
Eve; heavy, wet snow and high winds, which resulted in downed tree limbs and
electrical outages.

I
pinned a blanket over the door to my living room and spent the long evening in
the kitchen/dining room, keeping the temperature in there at 65 degrees (thanks
to my little gas fireplace), playing solitaire by kerosene lamp. I slept in my
cold guest room underneath my best down comforter, and was toasty all night.

On Thanksgiving morning, I awoke to
wonderland – this is the view from my back porch!

Still
no electricity, but my morning paper had been delivered (these are some of the
people who deserve standing ovations). I boiled water on the stove and managed
a cup of coffee, then sat at the table in brilliant sunshine under a strong
blue sky. Read the paper.

There was an editorial about Maine’s
antiquated “blue laws” (old laws prohibiting business on national holidays,
originally established in an effort to enforce the sabbath); the writer was
defending Maine’s tradition of upholding those laws—preventing that horrible
“Black Friday” shopping frenzy that overcomes most of the United States.

But
in that editorial, the writer called Thanksgiving our “best holiday, in part
because people can celebrate it anyway (sic)
they like.”*

I lowered the paper to the table, sipped
coffee, thought about it.

In this country, people can celebrate every holiday any way they like—they can
even chose not to celebrate holidays at all—and that’s an option for which I am
truly thankful.

At last!

In the early 1800s, five families settle on the Eastern River in Pittston, Maine. Together, they build a strong and lasting agricultural neighborhood based on New England values of community and reciprocity. Both fiction and social history, The Eastern flows through the experiences and truths we share with those who have lived before us.